Izuku Midoriya walked past the gates that lead into the legendary U.A., his eyes sparkling with awe and wonder at everything around him. Standing tall on the path before him stood the great school that had helped to create some of the greatest heroes Japan had ever seen. Heroes such as All Might and Endeavor, the current number one and two heroes! What was even more amazing was that some of their alumni even returned to teach! And out of all the heroes whose careers he tracked a tad more thoroughly, Izuku knew that Midnight, the heroine that had saved him years ago, had been here for some time as its art history teacher.
A smile crossed his face as Izuku thought of the woman, hoping that he would get the chance to see her and thank her again for what she had done. To show her that the 'little hero' she had saved all those years ago had grown into someone who could stand on his own two feet to save more people.
As Izuku continued this short trek to the main building, he began to take note of several of the other examinees. One student, a girl with bright orange hair tied to the side, was walking not too far from Izuku with her head down as she read from a small notebook. Most likely giving herself a quick refresher. Off to the side, standing in the shade of a tree, was a teen whose head was that of a blackbird. He just seemed to stand there, eyes closed as if trying to find some sort of focus.
While those two seemed calm and collected, Izuku also noticed some that were not handling the stress all that well. One of them, a boy whose mutation quirk gave him an oddly shaped head that sort of looked like a clay bulb, appeared ready to have a silent panic attack as he shied away from all those passing by. Not too far from the panicking teen were a few others who were just standing around as they watched the students enter, biting their thumbs as they scanned the competition. Izuku also noticed one teen with wild purple hair and looking like he hadn't slept in days. This teen was walking towards the building with his head down as if he knew he was marching toward certain failure.
Then, as Izuku was watching the purple-haired teen, someone walked between them. Izuku's eyes were drawn to this student wearing a light gray middle school skirt that stopped right above her knees and a matching blouse that had a pink bow around the neckline. While he had failed to notice her face, Izuku saw she had long flowing brown hair that went all the way down her back. As he followed her hair downward, the teen noted that she had a sheathed sword attached to her waist. The teen marveled at the weapon as she seemed to be the only one to have one , nearly distracting him from the fact that she also had a tail. A tanuki tail to be exact.
Now Izuku's eyes widened as he quickly looked up to the top of her head, seeing that she had cute tanuki ears sticking out of her hair. In all his life, he had only met one person who had those features. But it couldn't be…could it?
"Raphtalia?" called out Izuku, his voice came out before he realized what he had done. Surprised by what he had done, a hand went up to cup his mouth from saying anything else but stopped midway as the girl came to a halt. Swiftly she turned to look at him with a curious and puzzled gaze. The girl looked at him for only a moment before her features showed that she recognized him. Izuku watched as a hand went to her mouth as she looked down at his shield and hand, the last bit of confirmation of his identity.
"Izuku!" Raphtalia suddenly shouted startling a few people around her. But she didn't care as she leaped into the air towards the boy. Landing in front of him, Raphtalia instantly reached out with both hands to grasp his scarred hand. Izuku felt his heart beat a little faster as he felt her fingers tracing those marks gently.
"I can't believe it's really you," Raphtalia said much more softly, her tone almost musical to his ears as she looked into his eyes. Blood rushed to Izuku's face nearly causing it to become scarlet as his hand was being caressed by this very pretty girl. Vaguely he was aware that nearby students were now eyeing them, one of them apparently so focused on them that he tripped and fell on his face. But Izuku never pulled his hand away, just letting her slightly calloused hands touch his own until she finally let go.
"It's been a while Raphtalia," he responded with awe in his voice. "Are…Are you here to try and get into the hero program?"
"Yep!" exclaimed Raphtalia with a bounce in her step while one hand went to her sword's sheath and held it up a bit. "My parents were against it at first after what, well, you know. They told me I should just join them in the family's fishing business instead. Much safer. But I eventually wore them down. They even signed me up for some swordsmen lessons. Now I'm a whole lot stronger than when we first met!"
Izuku's smile faded a little, a hand going up to cup his chin as he looked down at the sword.
"That's great, but will they let you use that sword?" he asked.
At that, Raphtalia crossed her arms over her chest with a proud smile. "According to the rules, I can as long as I made or helped make it. It's been verified and everything." As Raphtalia then held up a hand, making it look like she was going to go into a more detailed explanation, Izuku felt something colliding with his shoulder.
"Out of my way, Deku! Same to you extra! If you two just want to stand around flirting all day long take it somewhere else!" growled Bakugo as he pushed past Raphtalia without giving her another glance as he made his way to the entrance.
"Well, that was rude," commented Raphtalia, hands moving to her hips while her ears twitched in annoyance. "Izuku, do you know that guy?"
Izuku found himself giving her an apologetic smile on his childhood friend's behalf while nodding slightly before gesturing for Raphtalia to follow him. Together they moved side by side towards the building's entrance while staying in the ashen blonde's wake. As they walked together, Izuku gave a brief explanation about his childhood friend.
Later, after the written exam had concluded, Izuku sat in an auditorium along with many of the other examinees with Kacchan seated next to him. As the explosive teen grumbled that he was stuck sitting next to the shield user, Izuku scanned the room looking for any signs of the tanuki girl. His eyes brightened when he spotted Raphtalia seated closer to the front seated next to…a floating schoolgirl's uniform?
Before Izuku could even blink in surprise, the lights of the auditorium suddenly turned off causing a bit of a stir among the students. But those voices quickly went silent when a spotlight suddenly illuminated the podium on the stage before them where a new figure stood. Izuku's eyes widened as he instantly recognized the man. With the sparkling eyes of a heroic fanboy, it took everything within his power not to let out a squeal of joy. It was the great DJ hero: Present Mic. And the best part: he was in full costume! Oh, this was so much different than sitting in his room listening to the pro's radio show and imagining him wearing his trademark stylish leather outfit, the multidirectional speaker attached to his neck, the shades, and the blonde hair that shot straight up!
His attempts to hold back his gushing of the pro hero failed instantly as Bakugo glared at him.
"Stop your damn fanboying," the ashen blonde growled under his breath.
"What's up U.A. candidates? Thanks for tuning into me, your school DJ. Come on and let me hear ya!" cheered Present Mic, his voice brimming with energy. The hero's body twirled around as he spoke and his hands waved excitedly in the air, yet not a single person answered his call as silence filled the room. Not that Present Mic seemed to mind as he waved a finger at those gathered. "Keeping it mellow, aren't ya? That's fine! I can dig it! So let's skip ahead to the main show and talk about how this part of the exam is going to go down. Are you ready?!"
"YES!" shouted Izuku, unable to hold back his fanboy nature as he stood up swiftly while throwing his hands in the air. Of course, this had the effect of drawing the attention of pretty much everybody in the room. All the other examinees stared at him as if he had gone mad while Kacchan hid his face in his hands.
"If I get the chance, I swear I'm going to kill you," he muttered through gritted teeth. For a moment, Izuku just stood there as the realization of what he had just done, as well as being the only one to do this, sunk in. Giving a nervous laugh, the green-haired teen slowly sat down while scratching the back of his head.
"Like your application said," continued Present Mic who somehow seemed to have gained more energy in his voice as his smile widened. It was like having a student finally responding to him lit a fire within his very being. "For the remainder of the exam, you rocking boys and girls will be doing mock battles in super hip urban settings. After I drop the mic, you will all be heading to your designated battle zones. Do you dig me?!"
At that moment, everyone looked at the cards lying in front of them. After turning them over, Izuku saw what battlefield he was to enter. He also noticed that Bakugo had stolen a glance at his card as well.
"I see," said Bakugo as he leaned back into his own seat. "They're keeping us apart so people who know each other can't work together."
"You're right," whispered Izuku in a tone that he hoped only his neighbors could hear. "Our exam numbers are right next to each other, but they have us split into different combat areas."
Bakugo glared at Izuku, his red eyes flashing in anger as he pulled his card away from the shield user. "Get your eyes off my card," he growled, "Damn, I was really looking forward to crushing you."
"Ok. Ok. Let's check out your targets!" exclaimed Present Mic, raising a hand as the large screen behind him lit up displaying what Izuku assumed was a model of the city they would be fighting in. There were also three silhouettes of three robots. "There are three types of foe villains in each battle center. You'll earn points based on their level of difficulty so choose wisely. Your goal in this exam is to raise your score as quickly while shredding these villains like a mid-song guitar solo! But check it, make sure you're keeping things heroic! Attacking others is a big U.A. no-no."
Just then, someone in the crowd in front of Izuku raised his hand.
"Excuse me, sir," came the loud, uptight voice of one of the male students. "But I have a question."
"Hit me!" yelled Present Mic.
At once a second spotlight began to shine down upon the one who had spoken. This applicant had dark blue hair that was parted in the middle along with rectangular glasses. He wasted only a moment after being enveloped by the light before stiffly standing at attention. From what Izuku could see this person's expression was firm, almost to the point of being overly serious, as he held up one of the handouts they had been given.
"On the printout, you listed four villains, not three," said the bespectacled teen, his voice filled with great annoyance. "With all due respect, if this is a printing error on officiall U.A. materials, it is shameful. We are exemplary students! We expect the best from Japan's most notable school. A mistake such as this is shameful and will not do. Additionally you with the unkempt hair." The boy then turned to point a finger at Izuku who, in turn, pointed a finger at himself. As if to say 'do you mean me?'. "You've been muttering this entire time. Stop that. If you can't bother to take this exam seriously, then I suggest you leave. You're distracting the rest of us."
Izuku blinked at the teen who stared at him with an intense look. A look that really didn't bother Izuku as he just raised his own hand.
"I also have a question about the robots," said the shield user, his tone far more polite and calm than the first.
"Yes, caller number two?" asked Present Mic with a wide grin, a spotlight shining down on Midoriya as the DJ hero spoke.
"You said we had to 'shred' these villains," began Izuku, doing his best to choose the right words. "I guess by that you mean destroy. Is that the only way we can take them out or are there other ways?"
"Hey, I was talking to you!" huffed the dark-haired teen who had first spoken, sounding even more annoyed. But Izuku just ignored him, instead keeping his eyes on the pro hero who was now grinning ear to ear as he waved them down.
"Alright, alright," proclaimed Present Mic, waving his arms in a way to get their attention as well as to calm them down. "A loud shout out to our two callers with their requests. To answer the first question of the night, the fourth villain type is worth zero points. That guy is just an obstacle we'll be throwing in your way. They're one of them in every battle center. Think of him as more of an obstacle or hurdle to avoid. It can be taken down, but there's really no point. I recommend to my listeners that you ignore it and try to focus on getting to the top of the charts! And while we're on that subject: to all you rockin' boys and girls out there with non-destructive quirks, you don't need to destroy your foes. Instead, all you need to do is immobilize them for fifteen seconds and then the robots will turn off all on their own. But just remember that you're on a time crunch."
At that, Izuku nodded while the blue-haired student promptly sat down.
Sometime later after Present Mic had dismissed them, Izuku found himself standing in front of the massive doorway leading into the testing area. Now dressed in a green tracksuit, the green-haired teen looked on at the others who would be his fellow examinees for this test. Many of them were stretching, warming themselves up for what would certainly be an intense experience. Others showed off the support gear that they had been allowed to bring with them with an air of confidence. As if their devices would be the deciding factor leading to their victory over skill.
Thankfully, he spotted a familiar face.
"Izuku!" Raphtalia called out when she noticed her old friend, waving to him excitedly. The tanuki girl was standing by the gate, now dressed in a loose, red t-shirt that had the image of two swords crossed along the chest along with matching red sweatpants. Still strapped to her hip was her sheathed blade. It was the kind of outfit that even a novice could see allowed the girl to move around more easily. Izuku blushed as she approached him, finding her to look extremely beautiful as she smiled at him.
"This is so wonderful seeing you again," said the girl happily.
"Y-Yeah. What are the odds?" replied the boy as he smiled awkwardly at her. Then, before he could say anything else, a thought crossed Izuku's mind. "Hey, Raphtalia? Would you like to team up for this exam?"
The tanuki girl's smile faded for a moment as she blinked at him. "Is that even allowed?" she asked.
Izuku brought a hand to his chin as he began to think aloud.
"I didn't see a rule saying we can't," replied Izuku as he brought a hand to his chin, muttering aloud as he began thinking aloud. "From what I've seen so far, they're splitting people up so that people from the same districts who might know each other won't be in the same test zone. That makes sense since they could have come up with a plan beforehand. But that's all the school has done. Nowhere does it say that it's against the rules for people in the same testing group to team up. After all, heroes do team up when there is a situation they can't handle on their own. So perhaps we should be thinking of the test like that. Like it's a mass breakout or something."
"I suppose that makes sense," replied Raphtalia, though she still held a worried expression. "But we'll only be scored on the robots we defeat."
"True," agreed Izuku with a nod. "But the points might be there to serve more than one purpose. Like to discourage us from working together. But the way I see it, we can work more effectively together watching each other's backs."
Raphtalia nodded, understanding the green-haired boy's reasoning. In exchange for possibly splitting the number of points between them, by working as a pair they could potentially defeat more robots in the long run while keeping the other safe.
"Alright then!" said Raphtalia as her smile returned, her tail beginning to swish back and forth as she took a step closer to Izuku. "Now I can show you just how strong I've become since we last saw each other."
"What's going on over here?" Both teens jumped at the sudden, loud shout that carried over the crowd. Almost as one the pair turned to see the large blue-haired teen walking toward them. And they weren't the only ones as the entire group became silent as they stood there watching the stern teen chopping his arm in a robotic manner. "You again? Are you trying to mess up our fellow examinees?"
Izuku blinked while Raphtalia gave the blue-haired teen a sour look. But before either of them could say anything, the gates opened up to reveal a false city inside.
"Let's go! Let's go!" came the voice of Present Mic. As one, all the gathered students raised their heads towards the source of the sound to find the DJ Hero standing on top of the wall looking down at them. "What are all you standing around for? There are no countdowns in real life!' It took a moment for the words to sink in and, when they did, everyone on the ground rushed into the city ready to destroy some robots.
The rush of students charged forward in what seemed like a sprint, putting everything into these first few moments in the hope of reaching the robots first. For some of them, their quirks gave them an edge. One of them just so happened to be the tall, stiff teen who seemed to love to scold others. Izuku, with Raphtalia keeping pace next to him, watched as the bespectacled teen shot forward in a great burst of speed rushing head first into the false city and alone with all the dangers it hid.
As for Izuku and Raphtalia, once they got to the first intersection they turned to the right while breaking away from the rest of the group. Dashing down the street, they soon came upon a group of their first villain bots. There were three of them in total, each of them a one-wheeled, two-armed one-point robot. When he saw them, Izuku held up his shield as the tree grid in his mind came to life.
"Two-Headed Black Dog Shield!" called out the boy, his selection made. Instantly, his small shield transformed into the form it gained after Izuku had managed to gain some fur from the Pro-Hero Hound Dog. In a flash of green light, his shield became larger and darker in color with two dog heads coming out from the top. After it finished changing, one of the one-pointers had closed the distance enough to attack the green-haired hero hopeful. Its metal arm pulled back before striking forward only to connect with the raised shield. However, despite the displaced air and the cloud created by the force of the attack, Izuku remained where he was with a slight grin on his face. Like the attack had been nothing. While this alone would have been slightly impressive to others, what happened next would have caused a pro to raise an eyebrow in surprise. Just after the robot had struck the shield, the eyes on the shield's dog heads began to glow red before they extended their necks out to bite at the machine with enough force that their teeth dug into its metal shell.
As the twin jaws held tight to the machine's metal skin, even making a growling noise, Raphtalia appeared behind it with her sword drawn. Izuku marveled at the scene before him: Raphtalia seeming to float behind their metal foe with her hair flowing in a breeze created in her own movement and sword raised above her head. With a single slash, she cut the robot in two before vanishing again before Izuku's eyes.
'Wow!' thought Izuku as he quickly began to try and figure out what her quirk was. 'Can she turn invisible? How does that work? Can she do other things like-'
Izuku's thoughts were cut short as he saw Raphtalia cut down her second robot. However, before she could turn invisible again the third robot was already racing toward her.
"Air Strike Shield!" he called out, raising his shield arm in the process.
As Raphtalia turned to see the attack coming her way, a green barrier shaped like a shield appeared between her and the robot. The one-pointer hit it with all its might, knocking it back. It was damaged, but not done for. Thankfully, Izuku had an idea that could fix that problem.
"Shield Prison!" he said with a grin, Izuku watched as many shields appeared around the one-pointer to form a sphere before chains wrapped around it. Izuku watched, listening as the machine tried over and over to force its way out. But, after several long seconds, it finally gave up. Once it became silent, Izuku deactivated the shield prison to see that, indeed, the robot was deactivated just as the sword user sliced through their last opponent.
Seeing that all their foes were finished, the pair grinned at each other before continuing to move through the city. Very quickly they fell into a routine. Izuku would use his shield to bite and damage the robots, drawing their attention while Raphtalia sliced through them with her sword. Whenever they were outnumbered, Izuku would use his Shield Prison to capture one or two of them when he could, trapping them until they deactivated. While Raphtalia did end up destroying more with her skills, thus getting ahead in points, Izuku was getting his fair share as on occasion his Two-Headed Dog Bite Shield did take down a few when the heads got a good hit on their necks.
As the minutes ticked by, Izuku began to notice that some of the other examinees were starting to get worn out or were in over their heads. More than once, they came across someone who was knocked on their ass looking up at a giant machine ready to attack. These attacks never came, however, as a giant green shield blocked the attack before Raphtalia's blade finished it off.
But that was nothing compared to what happened next. Both hero hopefuls saw a beam of light being shot down the street catching their attention. Looking down from where it came from, they saw a blond-haired boy surrounded by several three-point robots. What made it worse was that it appeared that the boy was in no shape to defend himself as all he seemed to do was clutch at his stomach.
Without wasting a second, the two leaped into action as the Shield Prison enclosed around the blond. With the examinee protected within the barrier, Izuku and Raphtalia rushed in as the three-pointers turned to attack. The green-haired shield wielder remained in front as several rubber bullets were fired at him, his shield raised to block them as Raphtalia jumped into the air behind him. As she fell, her sword was swung downward to cut one of the three-pointer's head in two. Without missing a beat, she swung to cut the next one while Izuku moved behind her to block another attack. Twin dog heads shot forth from the shield, biting the robot while Raphtalia moved out from behind Midoriya to cut down another three-pointer.
When the Shield Prison finally deactivated, the blond boy saw the pair standing over the wreckage of the robots as they caught their breaths.
Unbeknownst to the two hero hopefuls, their actions, as well as all the other students, were being watched. Within a dark room lit only by the light of various monitors, sat the teaching staff of U.A. All of them pro heroes, both current and retired, sat there in multiple rows of chairs that resembled the seating of a movie theater or stadium, observing their potential students from all of the battlefields on the scenes before them.
"It seems we have quite the promising group of students this year," said Nezu, the chimera-like principal of the school. The unusual mammal sat in the middle of the front row with a spindly blonde haired man sitting next to him. And before him was a council with numerous buttons, including one rather large red one underneath a plastic shield.
"Clearly the examinees have no idea how many villains are present or their location," continued Nezu, a teacup held in his paw while his eyes flickered from screen to screen. "They have limited time and must cover a vast area in order to hunt down as many targets as they can. Some are using their information-gathering abilities to plan out strategies while others rely on speed to pull ahead of their peers." As he said this, Nezu paused for a moment to watch the speedster of this exam. There, on the screen, was the image of Ida delivering a flying kick right into the body of one of the two-pointer robots. As his score, which was displayed on the bottom of the screen, updated, the mammal noticed something that brought a frown to his face. Unless he had been mistaken, he had seen Ida turn his head to glance at another examinee being overwhelmed by several one-pointer robots. Rather than stopping to help his fellow human, an act that would have been very easy given the amount of skill he had displayed thus far, Ida had looked away from one in need to continue racing ahead. This caused the mammal to frown a bit, sipping his tea. A part of him wished he could deduct points for such acts, but alas, he could not prove that Ida had in fact noticed the other examinee or believed that said examinee could get out of this mess on their own.
"Of course," began Nezu as he lowered his cup. "Remaining calm under pressure can be a huge advantage. As is power and combat ability." Once more, Nezu paused as his beady eyes focused on the teen who currently held the most villain points by far. Katsuki Bakugo was shown standing on top of a pile of defeated robots of various values, arms bent and hands upheld as he panted heavily. But despite this and the sweat dripping from his brow, Bakugo smiled with savage glee. There was no doubt in the principal's mind that the boy's quirk was powerful and the skills he had demonstrated were impressive, but the anger he exuded was worrisome. Also, did he also have to keep screaming "DIE" at the top of his lungs all the time?
Then, movement from another scene caught the mammal's attention. "Well, there's something you don't see everyday. Cooperation between examinees," said Nezu in his cheeriest tone, raising his teacup as if to toast the duo of sword and shield. Various teachers turned their gazes towards the screen just in time to witness the pair in action, Midoriya raising his shield to block a strike from a two-pointer robot. As the dog heads on the shield bit into the metal arm, holding it in place, Raphtalia moved to slice the arm from the main body before spinning around to cut it in half. With the tanuki's back turned, she failed to notice the one-pointer robot racing towards her. But Midoriya did see it coming, moving in to block the blow. Many of the heroes who witnessed this began to nod their heads in approval.
One of those teachers was none other than Midnight who eyed the pair's efforts with a smile.
After all, it had been no mere coincidence that the two had been placed within the same testing ground. Midnight had recognized them both as the brave little hero and the young girl the moment she had seen their applications into the hero course.
As she had watched them fight and aid each other, something that made her heart flutter with excitement, there was a bit of regret that she hadn't tried to get them in on special recommendation. It would have been a simple manner to get them in. Then she would have gotten a front-row seat at watching their delectable interactions and gotten to make some of her own comments to further fluster them. Though, to be fair, she had not seen nor heard from them since that day. So her nominating them when she didn't really know what they were capable of wouldn't have been a good idea.
Still, it had been worth cashing in the several favors just to make sure they would be together for this. And, as Nezu pressed the large button to unleash the zero-pointer, she knew that they would continue to impress her.